ZombieTown

Zombie Town (2007)

A small Vermont town is under siege when the citizens are turned into flesh craving zombies. It is up to the local mechanic, Jake, his girlfriend, and Randy the snow plow guy to save the town. Or at least prevent the spread of the strange worms (Night of the Creeps anyone?) that seem to be the source of the outbreak. But how can they hope to succeed when they are quickly out numbed by the zombies? Not only that but what are they going to do about the bingo parlor full of zombie grandmas?

I’ve been doing this review thing for a little over two years now and I have to say whenever I have a low budget zombie movie show up I cringe. They are so many of them and most are complete wastes of time. So it was with low expectations that I popped this one into the player only to be surprised by how much I didn’t hate it. Now I know that isn’t a ringing endorsement, but that is how I feel. The story is pretty straightforward with the zombies attacking the town. Of course the first thing that happens is a truck wrecks, blocking the only way out and trapping the cast/victims. Then you have the sad sack mechanic that can’t fix anything have to use his “skills” to get the truck going that will save them all. Hell you even have a wisecracking sidekick in Randy that gets all the best lines (and steals the movie). Normally these are all things that would annoy the hell out of me, but here it kind of works. For me what sets Zombie Town apart from the stack of low budget zombie flicks is the cast, especially Dennis Lemoine as Randy. He is really funny and has the comedy chops to pull off some great lines like, “Oh my lord it’s a grandma massacre in here”. Up until the Randy character is introduced I wasn’t terribly interested, but when he is on screen the movie picks up and gets pretty damn funny. The other leads in the movie Adam Hose (Jake) and Brynn Lucas (Jake’s girl Alex) are both decent actors and do a fine job. This just goes to show that a worn out formula can still be some fun with a good cast.

Of course it is a zombie movie so I have to talk about the effects. There is some CGI but most of the effects are practical. One of my first impressions after watching this movie is that someone is a big fan of Tom Savini. There are a couple of nasty bites done with the stretchy skin look that reminded me a lot of the similar stuff in Dawn of the Dead. But they are done very well, so I don’t consider this a bad thing. Also the look of the zombies is not bad for a low budget flick. The effects guys here really knew what they were doing, which also helps to set this one heads and shoulders above the dozens of other low budget zombie “epics”.

So is this a perfect movie? No of course not. But it is a fun little movie to watch and reminds me of how much fun the low budget zombie flick was before everyone and their brother decided to make one. Still unless you can pick this one up in the $5 bin I would recommend a rental. I’m not sure there is enough in Zombie Town to warrant a second viewing.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer